Justin Mauch wins Fish Rock in a Two Up Sprint over Lance Armstrong!

The first ever edition of Fish Rock, a mixed road and gravel adventure race in Northern California, saw a stacked field take the start on Saturday morning. Super star team members Justin Mauch and Sam Bassetti were joined by hundreds of other racers, including Lance Armstrong, for a 72.4 mile race with 9.670 feet of elevation gain.

A group of 8 went up the road, including both Sam and Justin, on the first main climb of the day. This group worked well together until the hit the gravel section of Fish Rock Road. With about 25 miles to go, Sam and Justin worked together to get away on a climb and immediately got a gap over their breakaway companions. Justin took the lead to push the pace on a big descent and Sam disappeared, the unfortunate recipient of a flat tire. Lance Armstrong caught Justin on the descent, and the 2 riders continued on. A moto later came up to tell Justin and Lance that Sam flatted and was now chasing along with Brian Finnerty.

Justin and Lance worked together, with Justin doing most of the pulling. An instagram story on Lance’s page featured a video of Justin with the quote, “This kid buried me today.” As they approached the finish line, Justin nipped Lance in the sprint to take the inaugural win in the event. Brian Finnerty rolled in 3rd place to complete the podium, with Sam coming home in 5th after repairing his flat tire.

I began road racing as an undergraduate after taking a class entitled “The Science of Cycling” as a winter term course at DePauw University. I joined the collegiate cycling team as a freshman, became hooked on cycling, and quickly became a Cat 1 racer on the road and track. I continued to race seriously after moving to northern California for graduate school at UC Davis (Geology). The 2010 season was my first season road racing on a national level at NRC races, riding for the Yahoo! Cycling Team. Immediately after finishing graduate school, I signed my first professional contract and spent the year racing in Europe with Team Raleigh. A few years and many miles later, I made the decision to retire from road racing and start to enjoy more leisurely rides on my mountain bike. In conjunction with this switch, I got married to my wonderful wife, Mandy, and took a more traditional job in the Department of Geology at Sonoma State University. In 2015, I continued to work at Sonoma State while taking over the helm as the owner and manager of Mooney Cycling LLC, the business umbrella that runs the Herbalife p/b Marc Pro – Nature’s Bakery Team, and also launching the Bikelangelo brand of custom stem caps with some friends. You can now find me answering emails from my phone as I continue to enjoy riding around beautiful northern California!